Ryan Trebon pushed my slow ass

With a smile. Into the sunset. The 3rd time he lapped me.

That, and other fine stories from this weekend's SSCXWC, coming later. In the meantime enjoy this video from CX Mag:

SSCXWC or bust

I'm off to participate in the shenanigans that are the SSCXWC in Portland this weekend. Sharon (now of Team Beer!) threatened to come up here and drag my ass down there if I didn't sign up this week, and excuses about bronchitis and months of work travel were not getting me far. So here I am on this list of participants, right next to the big names of people who actually race their bike A LOT. And WELL.

So I packed every kit piece I own since I'll be coated in mud within 5 minutes of arrival as well as a few special costume pieces for standard Portland CX flare. I'm looking on the sunny side (since it's rained for 4 days straight and there's no where else to look) and hoping that the training my Coast Guard brethren have put me through the past 3 months will give me some strategic advantage. My lungs may be weak, but my liver is STRONG!

We are FREE!!!!!

The scary bad dream is over!!!! Come out from under your covers and CELEBRATE!!!!

Yee Haw!

I'm back in the heart of Texas, this time for an oil spill conference in San Antonio. Goals are some seminars on aerial observations of spills, lessons-learned from last year's fantabulous San Francisco spill, buying a belt buckle the size of Texas, and finding the basement of the Alamo. I will not come home with anything less than 100% success.

Totally funda

Jane, Heather and I hit the RESET button on our Bike Luv computers today, hitting the road on our own in an attempt to remember what it is we love about riding. This had been a horrid week for all of us, making us contemplate why we should keep going forward when all the fun had been stripped like cheap Krylon paint on a beater bike. Thankfully an easy, sunny trip around Mercer Island, blanketed by beautiful rainbow-colored trees and lots of laughter and no stress was the perfect way to find that luv again. By the time we reached the I-90 portal on the way back we were smiling and recharged, our confidence back, cloaked again in the fabric of what makes our team special.

The perfect ending to our ride was having Lane ride up on his Cervelo as we were talking at the portal. I happened to look down at his fork and saw the word, "FUNDA" in small white block letters. I started laughing and pointing at his FUNDA fork, then had to explain its relevance for my amusement. It was the most I'd laughed all week and they agreed that everything we got out of today made it totally funda.

I pity da fool....

This is what goes through my head when I think of people who can't have fun on team rides at the end of a long, exhausting season and at the onset of an even longer winter training season:



My cycling career has been carefully groomed by Pee Wee's Big Adventure over the past 20 years. If there's one characteristic I've adopted the most it's that the person who's having the most fun wins! There is so much more to bikes and racing than being the fastest or who trained the most. Let's lighten up, kids. It will be a long winter of much wet and cold discontent so let's all put our training differences aside and be a team that has some fun together, eh? Put PWBA in your Netflix cue and chill the fuck out.

Mocha's first broccoli

A friend of mine familiar with my disdain for the broccoli sent me this when I said that animals are too smart to eat such an evil, vile plant. Obviously this little guy will grow up to be an EEEEEVIL hamster (but with cute little feet!!).

Reading is Funda-mental

I'm really going to be sorry to see her go in a few weeks. It's not often you get such easy fodder.

Thursday night on the town

My head is still reeling from a night out with my favorite bike hooligans. Scotty, who left us 2 years ago to return to his homeland in the Far North, came back for a night of beach wrestling, bonfires, toxic martinis, broken noobies, and of course lots of bikes.

I've missed riding with these guys, and something has drawn me back. Probably the realization that racing and training will never fully complete my life, but people who love bikes and carving their own trail surely will, much as it always has. (But next time, dudes, TACO TRUCK!)

Yet another South Seatac race

Well that hurt like hell.

Searing lungs - check

Inability to take another step up a "runup" - check

Flailing over barriers - check

Blackberry leaves sticking out of shoe 2 out of 3 laps - check

Screaming at girl who fell for no reason at 3mph on the pavement as I rode over her rear wheel and toppled over and lost at least 5 places on last lap - check

Lose sprint at the finish with nothing left in the tank - check

Uncontrollable drooling when I finally stopped - check

So close to puking, but not quite getting there - check

Did I mention searing lung pain - check check

Many lessons learned at South Seatac today. Biggest one is to not assume at the start that you are behind people who will have a good start. You're in control of your own race destiny. Hoards of women surged around me as I tried to get around those I started behind. I spent most of the race passing nincompoops with no bike handling skills and desperately trying to catch those in front of me who did. I still have crap in my lungs and was in crazy amount of pain breathing. Gotta get that figured out.

Had a great time seeing Ali (3rd!!) and Nancy do so well and hearing that Kelly finished unscathed. Our team had a great turnout and as usual, Eddie was a blessing on the stupid runup screaming "JILLYBEEEEEE!!!!!!" from across the infield. I was a little disappointed finishing midpack, but will cut myself a little slack for being on the bench so long and encountering so many wrecks in front of me. It only makes you determined to do so much better the next time!

More than this

Belguim: more than great beer!

Finally picked up my new Ridley Crosswind this week!


She's my first foray into the modern world of aluminum and carbon fiber (not to mention Shimano shifter/brake levers....what are these? Joysticks?). The last time I rode an aluminum frame was around 1996 on my old 1993 Cannondale (which replaced my 1987 Cannondale). Dang these frames have come a long way! Took her for her maiden voyage on Tuesday up the B-G and even then I could tell that this was one mighty fine bike. Bumps? Gravel? Dirt? Like buttah!! Seems like those carbon fiber forks live up to their reputation and aluminum isn't just the thick, beer can tubing of years past. So THIS is why people ride fancy modern bikes!!

Next we went to the Wed night CX training (holy hell I'm outta shape!) and she handled and rode like a dream - no jackhammering like my other steel frames that left my hands numb. And gears! Wow, when did those get invented? They're GREAT! Too bad I'm still so winded from 3 weeks off the bike and crud in my lungs to give this bike a true run for its money. For now it will be lots of play time and $20 training rides on Sunday mornings. And rides on the dirt during my commute! Grrrrrr.....outta my way joggers!

If it's too loud.....

Just got a phone call that my music is too loud and the new person downstairs can't fall asleep. Sweet! The new speakers I got yesterday for my computer are officially deemed a success! What good is a subwoofer if you can't feel the base? What did I bother the poor lass with?

Britney Spears, The Bubblegum Pop Remixes

Hell YEAHZZ!!

Where I been

Finally back from 2 1/2 weeks of working in Houston on Hurricane Ike messes. Funny that an AP article came out today on what we were doing and they even quote and have pics of the friends that I worked with:


Having a hard time getting back on the bike. I'm completely wiped out and EBV is ramping up. I've averaged 12 hrs of sleep the past 3 nights I've been back, a far cry from the 3-5 hrs I was getting in Texas. All my momo-tivation is towards laying on the couch and napping. Commuting and racing seem so....distant and haaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrd....

It's not supposed to happen

I'm so sorry Jen. Jane described you as, "leaving a trail of smiles everywhere she goes." They're a trail of tears right now, but you have a world of love around you that will make sure you smile again.

We love you Quadzilla.

To the sand pits!

So Gustov turned into a big fat nothing for those of us who respond to environmental disasters. Lots of wind and rain and power outages that will take up to 4 months to restore so FEMA is busy, but not us. So I get to stay local and.......ready my lame as for cyclocross season!!!

I did my first race in 2 years this Labor Day and had a shit eating grin for all 35ish minutes of the singlespeed race. I raced yee ole Fat Chance that I did quite well on in 2005, but 10# later it's a little tougher to get that steel rig around. Regardless, I had a blast and smirked for all three laps as the bell on my handlebars "tingtingting-ed" over every grassy bump and tree root and annoyed the living crap out of the other racers (mwhahahaha). The race course was fantastic, really long with lots of fun singletrack, a little pavement, and that bloody sandpit taken from the top instead of the bottom - so much for practicing my line from the bottom. I made it through anyway powered by sheer stubbornness.

My teammates RULE. At one of the woodsy runups, all I wanted to do was walk up, but from the bottom I could hear Ed at the top bellowing through the forest, "GO JILLYBEEEEEEE!!!" It made me laugh even harder and realize I had to give them a show and dig into that stupid hillside and get my ass up. Thanks so much for the encouragement, y'all.

No surprise, I ended up DFL in singlespeed against all the wily, fast men, but I did come in first woman! Ha! My new Ridley should be coming in soon so its gears and I will race Cat 4 in an effort to upgrade to 3 this season. Singlespeed will be by special appearance only. Like the SSCXWC08 in Portland with Sharon! More beer! (Aye, but should I really be on the same registration list as all those Elites? The universe really isn't supposed to work like that.)

Next stop, Counterbalance's CopperCross next Sunday back at Seatac!

Hold yer horses there, Northern Exposure

Holy crap

Ya know....when I was in NOLA the other week working on cleaning up a big oil spill, I joked, "Hey it's almost hurricane season, we'll have one come through and clean everything up for us."

I was kidding.

-----------------

New Orleans evacuation ordered
The Times-Picayune
Saturday August 30, 2008, 8:43 PM

Warning that Gustav is the "mother of all storms," Mayor Ray Nagin late Saturday ordered a mandatory evacuation of the West Bank of New Orleans for 8 a.m. Sunday and the east bank for noon.

"We want 100 percent evacuation," Nagin said. "It has the potential to impact every area of this metropolitan area."

Katrina had a footprint of about 400 miles, he said. Gustav is about 900 miles and growing, Nagin said.

"This is worse than a Betsy, worse than a Katrina," he said.

The mayor speculated that Gustav is so fierce Baton Rouge likely will experience 100 mph winds.

"You need to be scared and you need to get your butts out of New Orleans right now," Nagin said.

Nagin said he expects Gustav to "punch holes in the Harvey Canal," which could cause the West Bank to become a bathtub.

The West Bank has 8-foot-high to 10-foot-high protection, he said. Gustav's storm surge may be 15 to 24 feet high.

Anyone who opts to remain in New Orleans "will be on your own," Nagin warned, adding that services will not be available.

Before the month is out....

I'll post about something.

- Happy 3rd Katrina Anniversary! It's still a mess down there. Isn't this America? Another hurricane could only make it better by funneling money down there and making NOLA one of America's most livable cities again.

- Spent last week on a leisurely road trip from Santa Fe, NM back to Seattle with Zack. He was down there getting his Wilderness First Responder training (a.k.a. 80 hours of playing MacGyver) and is the person to go to if you ever have a ski pole or ice axe sticking out of your chest. We loaded the car with his mtb for me, and his singlespeed CX bike for him. After an afternoon at Ojo Caliente mineral hot springs we headed to Durango and reveled in some of the legendary, local mtb trails. I was a total GEEK an insisted on hitting all the spots I'd read about in the early 90s when Durango was the center of the mtb world and I idolized the likes of John Tomac, Juli Furtado, Big Ned, H-Ball, Sarah Ballantine, etc. We hit the local bike shop that was a museum of early 90s MTB history: Tomac's XC bike, H-Ball's downhill frankenbike (Oooooh!!! Anodized!!!), Ned's Worlds jersey, the old Specialized ads, etc. I even dragged Zack to the Steaming Bean, which I always read Juli Furtado hung out at. Geek. We also met a few guys packing their car for the MTB Singlespeed Worlds in Marin County and then for a bike ride from Reno to Burning Man. The one guy was wearing a pink VeloShop t-shirt so it was a kindred meeting. We gave them advice on surviving Burning Man and wished them a fun trip. As if.

So on we went to Molas Pass and riding the Colorado Trail, Ouray, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Missoula, and back home. It was great to see that part of the country that I'd never been, but dang I was ready to get off my ass and out of the car. Three weeks of sitting had taken its toll.

- Sarah Palin. Is McCain NUTS???? Sure she's savvy and can fish and shoot a bear all while rocking like Tina Fey, but......is McCain NUTS??? She's no Hillary. American women are not that gullible. He just sealed the nail in his coffin.

- Obama. OHHHHHH-BAAAAAAAMMMMMMM-AHHHHHH. It's not about me, it's about you. America, please don't fuck this up.

- Hurricane Gustov. It must have heard that I ate at the most amazing Argentinian steakhouse the night before I left NOLA and I wondered why it took us 2 weeks to find this place and that I wanted to come back. The universe is funny like that.

- Speaking of being gone....rumor around town is that I was clubbing seals for a few weeks. Why yes I was and they squeak like hell which makes you want to club them more.

- Cyclocross. I came back from my travels to cold weather and rain. I've never been so happy to wear wool clothing and a cotton cycling cap and be soaking wet. My 2 weeks at NOLA = new Ridley. BRING IT.

- Malt n' Vine in Redmond (oh so convenient to Wed night CX practice). My absolute new favorite home away from home (well, almost as favorite as the Burke Counterbalance). Doug and Lizzie will hook you UP with the best beers you've never heard of and even give you a free pint of what's on tap as you check out their goods and expand your mind. Kasteel Rouge - cherries and cherry juice infused Belgian beer? OMG put a nipple on it. In fact, I gave my favorite mechanic a few bottles of good Belgian stuff for totally rebuilding my Serotta and bringing it into the 21st century. Belgian beer, bikes, CX. I love the fall.

Mission Accomplished

Would you trust your shoreline to these fools? You should. They're some of the lead scientific coordinators for spill response and we've just completed another successful mission along the Gulf. In between all-nighters and meetings about oiled rocks (ooops, I mean riprap) we managed to hit the streets together: French Quarter, check. Bourbon Street, check. Hand Grenades, check. Sweet live music, check. Small, intimate, smokey bars, check. Beads, check. New liver, yes please.

Line of the week:

- "What happened to Liz last night?"

- "I dunno. Last we saw Liz she was on Bourbon Street with the Coast Guard."

Go Liz!